Monmouth Clinches NEC Regular Season Title

WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J.- Monmouth University's
women's lacrosse team (11-6, 9-0 NEC) finished the conference
regular season undefeated with a 9-7 victory against Central
Connecticut State (9-8, 7-2 NEC) on Sunday afternoon.

The defending champion Hawks captured the 2013 Northeast
Conference Regular Season Championship, earning the right to host
the 2013 NEC Women's Lacrosse Tournament next Friday and Sunday on
Kessler Field. Monmouth finished a perfect 9-0 in league play, the
first time MU has ended the regular season with an unblemished
conference record since the 2006 season, which was the last time
they hosted the tournament.

"I'm really proud of this team, I thought we fought very hard
today to win the game" said MU Head Coach Denise Wescott. "A lot of
players stepped up big. Cassie scoring for us, Kelly going in and
face-guarding Vendel. Katie had some great plays in goal, Gianna
did a great job in one-on-ones and getting the draw for us later in
the game. This was a total team effort. It's great to end the
regular season undefeated and being able to host the tournament.
Everybody did the small things we needed to do to get this win. We
needed to fight like dogs today to get this victory and they did
that."

Monmouth's 11 regular season wins is the most since the 2008
squad had 12 victories. MU has outscored league opponents 110-52
this year, including 68-21 in the second half.

Like they had a number of times throughout the season the Hawks
had to overcome a halftime deficit, trailing 5-3 to the Blue
Devils. The Hawks started the second half off with five unanswered
goals, including two from Allison Stathius (Delran, N.J./Delran).
SophomoreMeaghan Hess (Lake Stevens, Wash./Lake Stevens) cut the
deficit to one at the 27:00 make and Stathius tied it up two
minutes later. Kaleigh Gibbons (Candia, N.H./Central/RMU) put the
Hawks ahead 6-5 on a feed from Sam Savona (Jackson, N.J./Jackson
Liberty) with 22:00 left in the contest. Stathius and senior Cassie
Campasano (West Islip, N.Y./West Islip/Jacksonville) pushed the
Hawks ahead 8-5 by scoring a pair of goals within two minutes of
each other. CCSU's Ryan Mackenzy got the Blue Devils to within two
then Claire Healy cut the lead to one with 3:39 to play. Campasano
added an insurance goal on a free position attempt with 2:37 to
play and the Hawks came away with the 9-7 victory.

Savona started the scoring just 1:29 in the game but CCSU's
Falynn McCartney tied it up at the 20:06 mark. Defender Gianna
D'Urso (Fairfield, Conn./West Essex Regional) caused a turnover and
took the ball deep into Blue Devil Territory where she was fouled
and granted an 8 meter attempt. The senior scored her first goal of
the season on the ensuing free position attempt but the lead didn't
last long as CCSU's Betsy Vendel scored one minute later. Vendel
put her squad up 3-2 at the 15:05 mark, then Blue Devil Amanda Toke
gave her squad a two goal cushion seven minutes later. Campasano
scored her first goal of the game with 6:43 to play in the half,
but Toke answered right before the half to give her squad a 5-3
advantage at the break.

Campasano led the Hawks with three goals while Gibbons had three
points on a goal and two assists. Stathius continued her solid
weekend with two goals, three ground balls and a caused turnover.
Goaltender Katie Donohoe (Peterborough, Ontario/Holy Cross Catholic
Secondary) had seven saves in net to go with a pair of ground balls
and a caused turnover. With her five draw controls, freshman
Kristina Vangeli (Hillsborough, N.J./Hillsborough) set Monmouth's
record for most draws in a single season with 66, eclipsing former
MU All-American Heather Bryan's 2001 mark of 63.

Toke and
Vendel led the Blue Devils with two goals apiece, Mackenzy led CCSU
in points with a goal and three assists. Blue Devil goalie Morgan
Tullar had 12 saves as Monmouth outshot CCSU by a 25-23
margin.